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Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected strong evidence of a Saturn-mass exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, the nearest Sun-like star at just 4 light-years away science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. The candidate planet lies roughly 1–2 astronomical units from the star – within the habitable zone – although being a gas giant it “would not support life as we know it” science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. The discovery, accepted in Astrophysical Journal Letters, required JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument to directly image the faint planet despite the star’s glare science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. “With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own. Yet, these are incredibly challenging observations to make… Webb was designed and optimized to find the most distant galaxies… [but] the extra effort paid off spectacularly,” said Dr. Charles Beichman of NASA’s JPL, a co-author on the study science.nasa.gov. The team observed a bright dot in Aug 2024 and, after follow-up scans in Feb and Apr 2025 didn’t re-detect it, ran simulations showing the planet’s orbit could cause intermittent visibility science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. If confirmed, this would be “the closest [directly imaged] planet to its star seen so far…